Michael Porter Quotes

You have got to get the strategy right; you have to get the operations right - lined up from R&D out to the field.

Business is war! Its leaders are strategic commanders, who boldly snatch victory from the jaws of defeat - and who perform other acts of derring-do. This kind of talk sounds great in the boardroom, and, for that matter, in the bookstore, where dozens of authors counsel would-be corporate warriors.

Just as predatory animals follow a similar general design and behave in similar ways, so organizations, especially those in competition with one another, must follow certain design principles if they are to succeed and prevail.

This is a business that is much easier planned than executed.

Throughout history, the organizational evolution of the military has been inextricably linked with that of the business world.

I think every business is definitely different. There are certain businesses where execution is everything.

What I'm good at is making sure we have the best resources, the best talent, the best marketing, and the best access to distribution.

Just like a script, you need to keep a business plan to yourself.

Most companies don't have the luxury of focusing exclusively on innovation. They have to innovate while stamping out zillions of widgets or processing billions of transactions.

So in 2000, when we changed the business model and started really focusing on that triangle and putting the customer in the center, we decided we should hold off - we've done enough consolidation; we've got enough critical mass.

Profitability is coming from productivity, efficiency, management, austerity, and the way to manage the business.

I talked about 12 to 18 months, and that's about reaffirming our foundation for sustained growth: getting the discipline back, getting the basics right, getting the customer focus back... so by the end of next year, I hope most of that's in place.

Basically if you study entrepreneurs, there is a misnomer: People think that entrepreneurs take risk, and they get rewarded because they take risk. In reality entrepreneurs do everything they can to minimize risk. They are not interested in taking risk. They want free lunches and they go after free lunches.

Wal-Mart's success strategies and tactics are easy to understand yet hard to duplicate.

The art of coalition command - whether it is here in Afghanistan, whether it was in Iraq or in Bosnia or in Haiti - is to take the resources you are provided with, understand what the strengths and weaknesses are and to employ them to the best overall effect.

The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you're trying to accomplish.

Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation.

Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight.

Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.

We can reorient our products and business strategy because we are an agile organisation.

Incentives are not strategy, they are tactics. Defensive measures.

About half my time is spent on business operation type stuff.

In the U.S., we didn't have scale, and without scale, it's difficult to operate.

And so if your competitors aren't growing, if there isn't a competitive reason to grow, and you want focus and discipline to add customers to existing stores, you adjust your strategy.

There are companies with management and companies with money. You can always find money. Management is the key to success in any business.